rapturerebornmmorpgfandomcom-20200216-history
MMORPGs
Sitemap --- --- --- MMORPG = M'assively '''M'ultiplayer 'O'nline 'R'ole 'P'laying 'G'ame * SEE ALSO RATURE:REBORN * See Also Griefers MMORPGs Can BE Homes For the Anti-Social --- Massive Multiplayer = hundreds of people on at once (generally NOT in the same close proximity) Online = Interactive 'real time' (sortof) Role Playing = persistent avatar 'characters' doing more than just killing each other/NPCs - adventures and cooperation --- --- --- 'Some Truly Stupid Things I See in Some MMORPGs ( *TO BE AVOIDED* ) ' : Minefield of Monsters - the games are such shooting galleries, that they have to lace the terrain with opponent objects/monsters/enemies - almost laid out in a pattern like a minefield. Most stand there all day for no apparent reason, and you can hardly go 5 seconds of movement in a straight line without activating another one of them (bad if you are trying to maneuver while fighting one already, or retreating, etc...). Because they are spaced so close together, they have very small activation areas (for their simple 'activate/run at you/attack' tactics), and so behave like they cannot see you when you are only 25 feet away (or often when you start fighting one of their compatriots closeby they get no assistance unless you are in the activation range of the that other close enemy). Dumb and stupid like ducks in a shooting gallery. Respawn rates are so fast that the 'opponents' generally reappear after only a short time, frequently when you are fighting the next one a few paces away - so you quickly have no retreat path. Even better, they will respawn (appear) right ontop of you (the programming to prevent that really is Programming 101 stuff .. thus that much more pathetic for the games designers/programmers). If its a hard/challenging fight and takes longer, THAT is when that short timer and enemy repawn will foul your activity. No attempt is made to have respawns come from someplace else, all just appear like magic. This is all because of very simplistic programmed behavior for most sandbox situations, and the fact that in MMORPGs new territories (expansions) are swamped with Players playing through exactly the same paths (Quests/Missions), and the 'ducks' have to stand up/reset when they come back around for the next swarm of Players to kill. (Of course this itself was to counter the 'Camping' activity (ie- WOW) when certain opponents only respawned a few times a day/hour -- and beating that one opponent HAD TO BE DONE to progress down the Quest chain/arc - people waited for days to try to get to do the activity with that one opponent/activator). - Server Bubbles to the Rescue - Create an area the Player (and Party/Group if they Player is in one) which is isolated from outside interference and can be laid out more realistically, and lose all the restrictions/contrivances that make most MMORPG situations so feeble/generic. The Server can create the Mission area/props/objects On-The-Fly with any variation needed, and do whatever complex things are required WITHOUT complications from interference. Rapture with its endless ruins and odd little corners can alot this flexibility. No more "You Do Not Have The Corresponding Quest" access blockage. --- --- --- '''MMORPGS - IN THE OLD DAYS : In 'the old days', games did not have as much competition for the Players attention. But now there are many other compelling activities (TV Streaming/Texting) which compete for the Players time. So you cannot afford to have a game which wastes Player Time : * DONT WASTE THE PLAYERS F*CKING TIME * DONT HAVE TEDIOUS ACTIVITIES THAT WASTE THE PLAYERS TIME * DONT HAVE STUPID POORLY DESIGNED INTERFACES WHICH WASTE THE PLAYERS TIME AND PATIENCE * DONT HAVE MAKE-WORK TASKS, WHICH WASTE ... (Even easy but boring thing wastes the Players time when something more interesting/amusing might be done) * HAVE MORE AUTOMATIC GAME MECHANISMS FOR ROUTINE TASKS WHICH ONCE SET TAKE MINIMAL MONITORING/ATTENTION * SMART PATH FINDING (helped by the Players NPC 'Team') TO GET THROUGH MUNDANE AREAS WITH LEAST TIME --- --- --- Pablum and Tripe - The Main Meat of Most MMORPGs (Something To Avoid) ' : Most MMORPG 'battles'/'fighting' are either : 1) You boringly Zap-Vaporize the endless regularly-spaced minefield-like-filler of (usually single) stooge targets, or 2) you are dead in about 10-20 seconds from something that easily overmatches/overwhelms/overkills you -- effectively through a brute-force pummeling of YOU into paste. Pretty much all the enemy's (and your) 'tactics' are just a simplified slugging match, with maneuver/props/cover usually irrelevant. There is little middle ground to those extremes (harder ones just take a bit longer), with hardly any challenge (ie- something worthy of game 'experience'). The stories might be pretty/awesome/adequate, but the combat generally is repetitive and soulless. You have the Area-Level-appropriate mission scenarios. Some mission scenarios are employed as 'daily' grinders, repeated (as in done EXACTLY the Same) as long as you can stand the boredom doing them to 'level' yourself, or to gain some local 'achievement'. If you are lucky, there are many "missions" with some kind of story (but they boil down to some task (or sequence of tasks) like : Kill the one or N baddies, Fetch/find the ''whatzit or whozit, Get to location X with or without some dohickey, Escort an NPC somewhere, etc ...) Eventually you move on to the next 'level-appropriate' part of the world, and then repeat the same kind of activities there. The Reason for that lame kind of MMORPG content (besides the limited budgets AND Players who continue to pay for the same old junk) : * Players think (and have been conditioned to think/expect) that endlessly killing of things is gameplay. Another phenomenon that shapes their MMORPG worlds is that you need LOTS of targets for when Players Swarm in same limited areas (during a content-area opening day/week) forcing them to soak the scenery with rapid respawning target, an implementation that can remain in that state for years afterward). Running up mindless headcounts is given as a simple mechanism for Player success. * Simplified game battle mechanics : Point/click actions dealing impulse/area-effect/persistent damage with very few special cases/situational variants. Long reactivation recharge rates (for any one 'special' action) means alot of action that do pretty much the same thing (with a different name/sound/visual effect). There is little specialization of attack/weapon vs defense/resistance-type (generally no 'Achilles Heal' effect, empowering certain flavors of alternate actions/tactics). Tactics in most MMORPGs equals YOU just dumping as MUCH damage as FAST as you can before the enemy does that to you -- No Finesse, No Thought/Imagination. * Player's tend to figure out and repeatedly use the same (best/optimal ) action sequence. Special case bonus/enhancer pre-actions (buffs) and options in the mechanics are insignificant. 'Stun' actions simply allow a delay of actions with longer setup times. The same 'optimal' sequence pretty much applies to almost EVERY attack situation (and every target type). The same damage dealing attacks are used ad nauseum. Little thinking or cleverness is required. * Little partial damage/affectation on targets which allow impairing/limiting of enemy actions a certain way to enable certain tactics taking advantage of its current weakness. Opponents don't have damageable/disablable 'body' subparts for which they adjust their actions according to their damaged (and same with weapons/armor/widgets/tools/manipulable-props). Combinations of Player actions to do something like this usually are stilted sequences which always work the same. Any risky sorta-knockout blows just become a statistical nothing in combat (and thus get done routinely against innumerable repetitive opponents over and over, rendering them boring and grindy). * The game's Terrain impacts very little in combat, except rather coarse block/no-bloc of 'shooting' or movement, which doesn't last long as enemies simply navigate/follow you to get into line of sight/adjacency again (usually pretty quickly). Anything more complex and the simpleton AI scripting cannot/does-not handle it. * There are minimal tactics (or need to compensate for enemy moves/actions/abilities). It is unneeded for the "We Killed Thousands and they STILL Came!!!" imbecilic scripted 'enemies' (who stand in the open, activate within a short distance/close range, and then who scream and run directly at you to attack, or stand still and start to do missile attacks at range). Terrain cover is meaningless except as an obstacle to be moved around, or to sidestep to get a clear line of sight for ranged attacks. These games are typically devoid of Fire and Hide tactics. * Opponents see/detect at only a ridiculously short distance. Patrol paths add only a little enemy position randomness, and allow simplistic varying timing of attacks to fight individual enemies. Opponents usually DON'T communicate much between themselves (outside of a small immediate area) to call/activate reinforcements - even when allies are at an obvious (bizarrely short) range. * Often there is no use of maneuver, like flank/rear attack. Even an attempt to retreat/run-away simply activates more of the overcrowded (mine)field of enemies, who will ALL now be beating on you/firing til you die. In the narrow confines/paths, enemies you already fought your way through have already quickly respawned. * There are Simplistic Player experience ramps with 'advancing' to get 'new' (very similar) player actions that merely are different names for the same actions, just with incrementally increased magnitude effect coefficients. There might be some 'new' timing/visual/sound variations, but their use STILL amounts to the same action effects. * Customization of Player abilities - first with classes and some skill specialization options, and then through better 'gear' doesn't impact the basic game overly much. Players are generally handed area-level-appropriate gear in the normal mission sets. Exceeding that just results in overkill abilities which makes the generic opponents a bit faster to slaughter. Generally, by the time you have got to the harder Missions awarding the 'better' gear, you no longer need it. * Detailed/more-unique hand-crafted Mission Scenarios (or random encounter situations) are limited. They are pre-canned and mostly invariable. This is because of the work/skill ($$$) they require to design/create/debug and then place appropriately. Even in "Boss" (who have some 'major' attack/ability the player has to 'figure out') Mission scenarios, THOSE less-generic enemies are still statically placed, or always run predictably on the same patrol path/track, and once engaged/activated use pretty much the same basic/simplistic enemy 'tactics'. * Any Enemy Special abilities are simplistic (canned script activations when not of a generic type) with little flexible response in use or selected/adaptive combinations (Again Terrain is irrelevant). They are made quite predictable, little is different when the scenario is done 'over and over' (til the Player 'Solves It'). 'Difficulty' is just a matter of what counter-actions are needed to respond to the enemy actions, which were first-time-seen unknowns (and deadly). (( '' That is IF the Player hasn't already read all about its exact progression details online, to first time do exactly/whatever specific 'trick' is required '' )). * Whatever (PvP)Player-vs-Player is offered (in lieu of real NPC AI), it is played in a 'designated area' (so as not to interfere with normal gameplay). It is largely the same type of combat as the main game except it being a race by Players to level and gain 'gear' to overwhelm opponents. Tactics may be slightly more complex group 'concentrating of fire', and simple ganging-up-on/outnumbering the enemy Players. * In many MMORPGs, Coordinated Group play has now fallen away in significance from the primary game because it is too difficult to get reliable friends on at the same time for the requisite AMOUNT of time to handle the Group-oriented missions. Old narrower class-specializations (which in groups were designed to interlock) have been generic-ized, because of the greater amount of Solo play/smaller group missions (ie- of 3 players instead of 6). Many Players thus rarely/never make use of their character class's group-oriented skills, so that game-development is wasted on it (or its skimped on more by the designers). --- --- --- '''MMORPG Players Get Tired of the "Grindy-Grind Grind" : Lets face it, most games have/make you do alot of the same things repeatedly, -OR* they are over with little further advancement in very little time (The Developers just cannot offer (be budgeted for) sufficient unique content/game mechanics, EVEN WHEN they sell millions of copies). Not just the same old objects, tools and endlessly repeated actions, skill ramps, Reputation grinds, but even to the way that ALL the NPCs/terrain react (Player doing the same things the same generic ways for most of the generic 'encounters' couched in flowery story descriptions and a little different terrain). Again this is a reason to develop a method to greatly extend/expand game content using Player Creation as a primary feature of a Next-Generation MMORPG. New content added continually via the imagination of a hundred times as many talented people. --- --- --- --- --- . .